Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries (2 page)

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Authors: David A. Adler

BOOK: Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries
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Danny said, “The races and games are all against Mr. Dane’s class. We’ve got to beat them!”
Ms. Benson and her class walked past a bookstore, a fruit store, and a bank.
“That’s Zelda’s Bakery,” Beth said, and pointed to a store near the end of the block. “They make a chocolate cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. It’s great.”
“Cupcakes have lots of sugar,” Mr. Pace told Beth. “I don’t think anyone should eat lots of rainbow-sprinkle cupcakes.”
“My dad buys the oat bran muffins,” Eric said. “He says they are good for him.”
Just then two old women hurried out of Zelda’s.
“They’re coming this way,” Danny said.
Four other people hurried out of Zelda’s. They went the other way.
Eric said, “There must be trouble at Zelda’s.”
“Maybe the sprinkles are fighting,” Danny said. “Maybe they’re jumping off the cupcakes.”
“This isn’t funny,” Beth told him. “Those women look scared.”
CHAPTER TWO
Eric said, “Maybe there’s a fire at Zelda’s. Fires are scary.”
Cam watched the front of Zelda’s. She wondered if anyone else would leave the store.
“The two women are coming this way,” Beth said. “Let’s ask them what happened.”
They were walking slower now. One was tall and thin. The other was short and heavy. They walked past Ms. Benson and the children at the front of the line.
The larger woman stopped by the bank. She leaned against the wall. She put her hand to her heart.
“I have to rest,” she said.
The thin woman stopped, too.
“Hello,” Mr. Pace said to them. “Are you okay?”
The thin woman looked at her friend. “I’m okay,” she said. “Sadie, are you okay?”
“Yes, Martha,” the woman named Sadie said.
“What happened at Zelda’s?” Beth asked.
Cam looked away from the front of the bakery. She wanted to hear what happened at Zelda’s.
“It was horrible,” Martha told Beth. “‘Give me your money.’ That’s what he said.”
“That’s what
who
said?” Beth asked.
“The man with the floppy red hat said that,” Martha answered. “He sounded angry.”
“He talked real fast. I think he was in a hurry,” Sadie said. “I think maybe he was on his way to his job. Maybe he didn’t want to be late.”
Martha shook her head and said, “You’re wrong, Sadie. That
was
his job. He’s a thief.”
“What else was he wearing?” Eric asked.
“He wore that big red floppy hat, an old blue jacket, blue jeans, blue sneakers, and large sunglasses,” Martha answered. “We saw his clothing, but we didn’t see his face. The hat and sunglasses hid it.”
“That’s right,” Sadie said. “He also had something green with a wire attached in his ear. I think it was an earphone.”
Martha said, “I think he was listening to music.”
Cam closed her eyes. She said,
“Click!”
“I saw him,” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “Just after you ran out of Zelda’s, he left, too. He went the other way.”
Cam opened her eyes.
“Hey,” Danny said. “We’re going that way. Maybe we’ll see him.”
Sadie stepped away from the wall. She took a deep breath and said, “I feel better now.”
“If we see a man in a big floppy red hat,” Danny’s father said, “we’ll call the police. I brought along a cell phone.”
“He took only three dollars from me,” Sadie said. “That’s because I take along only as much money as I need. I was buying a loaf of bread, so I just needed three dollars.”
“He took more from me,” Martha said. “He took lots more money and my gold bracelet.” She wiped away a tear. “My children gave me that bracelet for Mother’s Day.”
“We have to go to the park,” Mr. Pace said.
Sadie told Martha, “You’ll buy another bracelet. Your children will never know the one they gave you was stolen.”
“But I’ll know,” Martha said.
“Let’s go,” Mr. Pace told Danny and the others.
“My friend Cam Jansen will catch the thief,” Eric told the two women. “She’s a great detective. She’ll get your bracelet and money back, too.”
“Let’s go,” Danny’s father said again.
“Yes,” Mrs. Wayne added. “Let’s go.”
Cam, Danny, and Beth followed Mr. Pace and Mrs. Wayne.
Eric waited until the others were a few steps ahead. Then he whispered to the women, “Don’t worry. Cam is amazing. She’ll get your things back.”
Sadie took a small card from her purse. She wrote on it. “This is my telephone number. Call me when she gets our things.”
Eric took the small card. Then he ran to catch up with the others.
CHAPTER THREE
A police car sped past Cam and her friends. It stopped in front of Zelda’s. Two police officers got out. They went into the bakery.
Mrs. Wayne said, “I wonder what’s happening in there.”
“I’m wondering, too,” Danny said. “I’m going in.”
“No you’re not,” his father told him. “You’re going with us to Franklin Park.”
As they walked past Zelda’s, Cam, Eric, Mrs. Wayne, and Danny looked in. Two police officers were there. They were talking to a very thin woman.
“That thin woman is Zelda,” Eric whispered to Cam. “She loves to bake.”
“Let’s go,” Mr. Pace said.
Just past Zelda’s was a narrow driveway. Along one side of the driveway was Zelda’s. Along the other side was a tall metal fence. At the end of the driveway was a large open metal trash container.
“Hey, look at that!” Danny said. “There is something red in the trash.”
Danny hurried down the driveway.
“Wait! Wait!” his father called.
Mr. Pace hurried after his son.
Cam and Eric watched Danny step onto a wooden box by the side of the trash bin. He reached into the trash and took out something red.
“Look at this!” Danny said as he ran toward Cam.
Danny had a large red hat.
“I found it in the garbage,” Danny said. “It was right on top.”
“You shouldn’t have taken that hat,” Mr. Pace said. “I don’t want you mixed up in any robbery. We should give that hat to the police and then go to the park.”
“Yes, let’s go,” Beth said. “Ms. Benson is way ahead of us.
Everyone
is way ahead of us.”
“Danny, that hat is a clue,” Mr. Pace told his son. “You must give it to the police.”
“But I like this hat,” Danny said. “Look at me.”
He put on the floppy red hat. He turned so everyone could see how he looked.
“Ha!” Beth said. “I bet crooks don’t wash their hair much. I bet that hat has cooties.”
“Cooties!” Danny said.
He threw the hat to the ground.
“I’m giving that to the police,” Mrs. Wayne said. “But first, I’m looking in the trash for more clues.”
Mrs. Wayne took the hat off the ground. Then she walked along the driveway toward the trash bin.
“Come on,” Cam whispered to Eric. “Let’s go with her.”
Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric hurried down the driveway. Eric stood on the box by the side of the bin and looked in.
“Just look,” Mrs. Wayne told him. “Don’t touch anything.”
Eric said, “I see a large pair of sunglasses.”
Cam told Eric to look for a blue jacket.
“There it is,” Eric said. “And there’s a green wire hanging out of the pocket. I bet that’s the wire Sadie and Martha saw.”
Cam and Eric looked around the trash bin. The area was clean. The driveway and backyard of the bakery were surrounded by the metal fence.
Eric said, “We knew the thief was wearing a large red hat, sunglasses, a jacket, and an earpiece with a green wire. Those were our only clues. Now that the thief is not wearing this stuff we’ll never find him.”
“I’m giving this hat to the police. And I’m telling them where to find these other things,” Mrs. Wayne said. “Then we have to get to the park.”
Because of the fence, there was no way out of the backyard except down the driveway.
“Look!” Mrs. Wayne said. “We don’t have to walk around. There’s a back door to the bakery.”
Mrs. Wayne opened the door. She, Cam, and Eric walked past large ovens, two women mixing dough, a young man decorating a cake with icing, and a young man taking loaves of bread from an open oven.
“You can’t be here,” one of the women told Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric.
“They’re with me,” Mrs. Wayne said. “I’m Dr. Prell’s secretary. She’s the principal.”
“This is a bakery, not a school,” one of the women told Mrs. Wayne.
“Okay,” Mrs. Wayne said. “We’re leaving.”
She walked with Cam and Eric past the workers to the front of the store.
One of the police officers was a tall woman. The other was a not-so-tall man with a short beard.
“Hey, aren’t you the clicking girl?” the not-so-tall officer with the short beard asked Cam. “Do you remember me? I’m Officer Gil Oppen. I met you at your school.”

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